Information regarding entities and events are largely dispersed and included in a variety of media, such as electronic media, print media, and others. As a result, acquiring adequate information can be extremely unreliable and cumbersome to a individual desiring information about an entity or an event.
An entity may include, by way of example only, a person, an animal, an organization, a group, a landmark building/location, a historic device (e.g. space shuttle), a historic document (e.g. Declaration of Independence), and others. An event may include, by way of example only, a historic moment in time (e.g. American civil war), a personally significant moment in time to an individual (e.g., birth, wedding, death, and the like), a significant moment in time to an organization (e.g., date of first operation, information on the founders, leaders within the organization, and the like), a significant moment in time for a landmark or device (e.g., date first constructed), and others.
Typically, an individual seeking information about an entity or an event must do a substantial amount of research to acquire the information regarding the entity or the event. This research may entail, by way of example only, searching the Internet, searching the library, looking through family documents/memorabilia, and the like. Once done, the research may then be assembled into a cohesive package or centralized in one location by the individual. Often, the assembled research is provided as an additional document, which may or may not include electronic linkages to the information acquired during the research.
Moreover, the research regarding the entity or the event is often not directly located by additional individuals seeking to find information similar to the research performed. As a result, the research is repeated and, therefore, not effectively reusable. It would be more desirable for the research to be directly ascertainable from a good which is associated with the entity or the event.
In this way, additional individuals when presented with the good could locate the service associated with the good, such as and by way of example only a domain address on the World Wide Web (“WWW”), wherein the domain address is associated with a hypertext link referred to as a Uniform Resource Location (“URL”). For example, a headstone (e.g., a good) may be sold to a deceased's (e.g., entity) loved one (e.g. user), so that the headstone identifies a service by a name appearing as a string on the headstone. The user may then submit information (e.g., date of birth, date of death, pictures/videos/audio pieces associated with the deceased, and the like), regarding the entity to the service for collection and distribution in a centralized location (e.g., website). The information may be collected in electronic or print format and placed in an electronic format for centralized storage and distribution.
At some later point in time, a family member or friend of the entity (e.g., the deceased) will notice on the good (e.g., the headstone) the string identifying the registration service and may then establish an Internet connection and use the string (e.g., as part of the URL) to visit the website of the service. Once at the website, additional information (e.g., last name of the deceased, date of death, date of birth, and the like) about the entity (e.g., deceased) may be entered to acquire the information associated with the entity from the website. In this way, a centralized location may be readily ascertainable and may further permit uniform and easy remote access to information about the entity.
As one skilled in the art will appreciate, the ability to identify from a good the name of a registry service having information related to an entity or an event would be of tremendous benefit. Moreover, as the service acquires name recognition it may be that individuals will visit the service without first determining if an entity or event is associated with the service. In this way, it is possible for the registration service itself to become a centralized data warehouse for information associated with an entity or an event.
Moreover, it may be that the service becomes readily discernable to individuals simply by a seal or other mark of distinction, such that a website location of the registration service is readily known to an individual upon seeing the seal or mark of distinction on a good. Seals or marks of distinction will indicate to individuals that information regarding an entity or event associated with the good may be obtained from a registration service.
It is apparent that methods of providing a service to gain access to information related to an entity or an event in a centralized location are needed, as well as an improved registry service which effectively provides the same.